VIDEO: Politically Moody? Depends on Your State (of Mind) or What I Said on MSNBC

It’s a political take that collapses the nature versus nurture debate: what factors shape you–our DNA or our surroundings. Researchers set out to discover which attitudes and attributes best mirror a region. It’s insightful and a little funny. For one, I’m still trying to figure out why I left glorious California, a deep vibrant green that according to this “mood map” symbolizes creative and relaxed. I went East, specifically the Northeast–firstly New England then Washington, DC which is blue for “temperamental and uninhibited.” I also lived in Texas which in typical Lone Star state tradition exhibits “blue” qualities in a sea of, on one side “friendly and conventional,” and on the other, “creative and relaxed.” Click to read America’s Mood Map: An Interactive Guide to the United States of Attitude and take the quiz.

hahaha moody (politically). Courtesy: MSNBC

While fun, I want to know more about the impact patterns of migration on a region. Perhaps there’s a clue in Virginia and North Carolina classified as “relaxed and creative” as the areas around Raleigh-Durham, Chapel Hill, and the Washington DC suburbs of Northern Virginia prove. Certainly, Election 2013 which elected Terry McAuliffe, it’s first Democratic governor of the Old Dominion in 40 years, seems to be more evidence of migration’s dynamism and how it can factor, if not outright put a race in play.

I will be curious to see how new voters–Latinos and youth–change the mood map and how candidates and parties adjust their outreach and engagement. This of course changes according to powerful factors such as the make-up of the electorate which is a subset of the population and divides even more if you ferret out primary from general election voters.